In 1949, Israel signed armistice agreements with its Arab neighbors at the end of the war in which it had been born. The Jewish state found itself with an unwelcome 156,000 Arabs, who faced ...
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In 1949, Israel signed armistice agreements with its Arab neighbors at the end of the war in which it had been born. The Jewish state found itself with an unwelcome 156,000 Arabs, who faced circumstances entirely different from those they had previously known. Instead of being a majority, as they had been in Mandatory Palestine, they became a minority as a result of the uprooting of some 700,000 who became refugees. To prevent hostile activity and to establish their firm political control over the country's Arab populace, Israeli security forces quickly created networks of informers and collaborators in the Arab community. It was an extremely effective policy that operated on three levels: tactical, political, and in relation to consciousness and identity. Israeli security agencies were also involved in the appointment of mukhtars (village representatives who dealt with the authorities). Even after this change, the security agencies continued to intervene in Arab local politics. The bodies that coordinated the activities of the security forces in Arab settlements included the Regional Committees on Arab Affairs.Less

Introduction

Hillel Cohen

Published in print: 2010-06-01

In 1949, Israel signed armistice agreements with its Arab neighbors at the end of the war in which it had been born. The Jewish state found itself with an unwelcome 156,000 Arabs, who faced circumstances entirely different from those they had previously known. Instead of being a majority, as they had been in Mandatory Palestine, they became a minority as a result of the uprooting of some 700,000 who became refugees. To prevent hostile activity and to establish their firm political control over the country's Arab populace, Israeli security forces quickly created networks of informers and collaborators in the Arab community. It was an extremely effective policy that operated on three levels: tactical, political, and in relation to consciousness and identity. Israeli security agencies were also involved in the appointment of mukhtars (village representatives who dealt with the authorities). Even after this change, the security agencies continued to intervene in Arab local politics. The bodies that coordinated the activities of the security forces in Arab settlements included the Regional Committees on Arab Affairs.

The French army's Saint-Simonian officers implemented an alternative project in order to realize their vision for “colonial association.” The project targeted the assimilationist tendencies of the ...
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The French army's Saint-Simonian officers implemented an alternative project in order to realize their vision for “colonial association.” The project targeted the assimilationist tendencies of the French government and civil authorities, as well as rival military factions with contending views on colonization and pacification. Starting from the lowest levels of the military administration in the early 1840s, these officers expanded their power base in the Arab Bureaux to take gradual command of the native portfolio and control by the end of the decade the two main decision-making bodies for indigenous affairs on both sides of the Mediterranean: the Arab Directorate of the Government General in Algiers; and the Algerian Directorate of the Ministry of War in Paris. This chapter reviews the origins of the Offices of Arab Affairs, and traces the connections between the intellectual formation and training of their serving officers and the ideological tenets behind their drive to take over cultural policy making in Algeria.Less

Impermanent Monstrosities

Published in print: 2010-05-10

The French army's Saint-Simonian officers implemented an alternative project in order to realize their vision for “colonial association.” The project targeted the assimilationist tendencies of the French government and civil authorities, as well as rival military factions with contending views on colonization and pacification. Starting from the lowest levels of the military administration in the early 1840s, these officers expanded their power base in the Arab Bureaux to take gradual command of the native portfolio and control by the end of the decade the two main decision-making bodies for indigenous affairs on both sides of the Mediterranean: the Arab Directorate of the Government General in Algiers; and the Algerian Directorate of the Ministry of War in Paris. This chapter reviews the origins of the Offices of Arab Affairs, and traces the connections between the intellectual formation and training of their serving officers and the ideological tenets behind their drive to take over cultural policy making in Algeria.

Between 1830 and 1870, French army officers serving in the colonial Offices of Arab Affairs profoundly altered the course of political decision-making in Algeria. Guided by the modernizing ideologies ...
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Between 1830 and 1870, French army officers serving in the colonial Offices of Arab Affairs profoundly altered the course of political decision-making in Algeria. Guided by the modernizing ideologies of the Saint-Simonian school in their development and implementation of colonial policy, the officers articulated a new doctrine and framework for governing the Muslim and European populations of Algeria. This book shows the evolution of this civilizing mission in Algeria, illustrates how these forty years were decisive in shaping the principal ideological tenets in French colonization of the region, and offers a rethinking of nineteenth-century French colonial history. It reveals not only what the rise of Europe implied for the cultural identities of non-elite Middle Easterners and North Africans, but also what dynamics were involved in the imposition or local adoptions of European cultural norms, and how the colonial encounter impacted the cultural identities of the colonizers themselves.Less

Apostles of Modernity : Saint-Simonians and the Civilizing Mission in Algeria

Osama Abi-Mershed

Published in print: 2010-05-10

Between 1830 and 1870, French army officers serving in the colonial Offices of Arab Affairs profoundly altered the course of political decision-making in Algeria. Guided by the modernizing ideologies of the Saint-Simonian school in their development and implementation of colonial policy, the officers articulated a new doctrine and framework for governing the Muslim and European populations of Algeria. This book shows the evolution of this civilizing mission in Algeria, illustrates how these forty years were decisive in shaping the principal ideological tenets in French colonization of the region, and offers a rethinking of nineteenth-century French colonial history. It reveals not only what the rise of Europe implied for the cultural identities of non-elite Middle Easterners and North Africans, but also what dynamics were involved in the imposition or local adoptions of European cultural norms, and how the colonial encounter impacted the cultural identities of the colonizers themselves.

This chapter presents an account of a departure in France's political decision making in Algeria and in the ideological justifications for its colonial rule. The decisive turn occurred in the late ...
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This chapter presents an account of a departure in France's political decision making in Algeria and in the ideological justifications for its colonial rule. The decisive turn occurred in the late 1840s and was driven by the administrative ascendance of a group of colonial officers serving in military intelligence units known as the Bureaux of Arab Affairs (Bureaux arabes). The chapter shows that the general theory of colonial assimilation fails to fit the facts of policy making in Algeria, especially during the formative decades of French rule. It argues that political and cultural assimilation was not the undisputed doctrinal lodestar for colonial policies and seldom unified the French administration with a bedrock of operative principles before 1870. Instead, for much of the period under review, the nascent colony was governed in fits of political uncertainty or procedural incoherence, and with policies of trial and error.Less

Never the Twain Shall Meet?

Published in print: 2010-05-10

This chapter presents an account of a departure in France's political decision making in Algeria and in the ideological justifications for its colonial rule. The decisive turn occurred in the late 1840s and was driven by the administrative ascendance of a group of colonial officers serving in military intelligence units known as the Bureaux of Arab Affairs (Bureaux arabes). The chapter shows that the general theory of colonial assimilation fails to fit the facts of policy making in Algeria, especially during the formative decades of French rule. It argues that political and cultural assimilation was not the undisputed doctrinal lodestar for colonial policies and seldom unified the French administration with a bedrock of operative principles before 1870. Instead, for much of the period under review, the nascent colony was governed in fits of political uncertainty or procedural incoherence, and with policies of trial and error.